Monday, December 05, 2016

In The New Studio

It's been a while since I caught you up on what's going on in my life. I'm finally mostly settled into our new home and into my new studio. I know many of you were concerned that I'd be unhappy giving up my large studio and moving to a smaller one, but let me tell you I'm loving this space. Perhaps it's the newness and the challenge of creating a place where I can work comfortably and efficiently. I've always liked changing things around.

I transformed what was the master bedroom into a very good working studio. We ripped out the carpet and replaced it with cork flooring and then moved much of my old furnishings into the space, though I no longer have that big table that I loved so much. In it's place I have an Ikea table that's 30 x 60 with telescoping legs. At it's maximum height it's a good place to stand and work and it can be moved to the corner where it just fits over my flat files.

This corner is where I spend most of my time. The table on the left houses my sewing machine though I haven't used it yet. The corner table has the computer, printer and scanner, and the table to the right is for collage and journal work. I've had these pieces of furniture for nearly 30 years and have used them in many configurations.

I found this useful chest on sale at Michael's and after a frustrating morning putting it together I'm finding it to be just right for all my Compost, the bits and pieces of paper that I use frequently to build my collages. There's a similar chest to the right for watercolor and drawing supplies.

And these two wire basket units, Elfa brand, contain more papers. The one on the right is my main palette of hand painted and textured papers. Of course, this isn't all of my paper stash. Next to the needs of a fiber artist I think the collage/mixed media artist has the biggest stash of supplies. There are two large chests in the closet and more general supplies (glue, cutting tools, supports) in other out of the way spaces. But what I have in this room isn't "in storage", it's right here at hand where I can grab what I need without too much searching.

Then there's the garage studio...

I intend to do all my wet and messy work in the garage where I took over an existing tool bench with its big north-facing window. I have paints and tools in drawers and in boxes underneath the cabinet and in shelves to the left. The floor is easily cleaned epoxy and although there's no water supply I own several buckets that will serve me well. I got this studio up and running just before the weather turned cold and without heat I can't spend much time here, though I do have plans for a way to curtain off the area and use a space heater for short bouts of painting.

Painting large will probably be reserved for warmer weather and I'll work in the other studio during the winter. We'll see what happens as I settle into using these two wonderful spaces. I have one larger painting started and am working on a small collage sketchbook which I'll show you when it's finished.

Mostly I'm working on lesson plans for my Creative Process class to be held at The Village Gallery in Cedar Mill, OR. on December 29. We'll concentrate on figuring out ways to foster creativity in the studio and use the collage process to study composition. I'm excited to be teaching this class. It's a go, for sure, but there are 4 spaces remaining if you or someone you know wants to have some creative fun between Christmas and New Years. This may be the last in person class I teach.

I'd love to hear from you, and hope you leave me a comment below or shoot me an email.

Oh yes, I've lost more weight and am nearly to my goal. I'm so glad I found Bright Line Eating. If you are curious let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.

Art Tip: Removing acrylic from hands

Use ordinary hand sanitizer to quickly remove acrylic paint and medium from your hands. The alcohol in the sanitizer dissolves the acrylic. Wipe well with a paper towel and then wash with soap and water.

Art Tip: brush cleaning

As I work with acrylic medium for glue or with acrylic paints I stand my brushes in a bucket of water on my work table and give them a soap and water cleanup every day or so. But eventually my brushes get gunky and sometimes I forget to clean them. That's when I clean them with Murphy's Oil Soap. I keep an inch of MOS mixed 1:1 with water in a tall plastic tub (Feta from Costco) and put caked brushes in that solution overnight. By the next day the soap has softened the brush and with a bit of elbow grease I can get the brushes back to useable. This also works for brushes used with oil paint. I gave up using oils but wanted to save those good brushes and Murphy's Oil Soap came to the rescue. Get it at the grocery store.